12.10.11  Jeff's Uncle Ben came to town to celebrate his 70th birthday with family.  His actual birthday is Dec 7, 1941.  Yep - that's Pearl Harbor Day!  Our family and some of Jeff's cousins all met at Bucca de Beppo in downtown Seattle for a special birthday dinner.  It was a very fun atmosphere as we sat in the Pope Room.  We saw another 1 of Jeff's cousins there from his mom's side of the family.  What a small world!  Dinner was good and then we headed to Darren and Shannon's house for cake and ice cream and presents.  It was also our niece Ryan's 4th birthday on Dec 11th.  The cousins had so much fun playing together!  I took tons of pictures for Papa's calendar this year. 

12.8.11  We had to rush from Zach's basketball game to Kylie's choir program.  They were singing Christmas songs at Cocoa with Santa.  The kids all did a great job....1 song they forgot some of the words to but they mumbled along and finished well.  Afterwards, Santa came to pose for pictures but we didn't have time to wait.  We visited the book fair and then had to rush home to deliver Zach's newspapers.  Whew!  What a night!

12.8.11  We played at home this game and it was another close one!  They've had 4 nailbiter games that go down to the wire!  We pulled ahead and won in the last 2 minutes and the other team's coach was not a happy camper!  The boys played great together and stayed tough through the end of the game.  Again, no pictures...

12.6.11  Zach's team had an away game at Tahoma Middle School.   I wasn't able to get time off work so got there in the middle of the 3rd quarter.  My friend Carol texted me the updates until I got there.  Sounds like it was a good game and Zach had really great stats!  He had 6 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and 1 block!  Woohoo!  We won easily   After the 1st quarter, per the coach,  the boys had no fast breaks, passed at least 5 times before shooting, and no back court defense.  The other team just didn't play well.  They were passing to our boys and it was too easy not to steal!  Very good skill game for our team.  Sorry, no pictures for this game either as I came straight from work.

12.3.11  It was a really nice and sunny, albeit cold day and Jeff and the kids were up on the roof putting on our xmas lights.  We went with red, green and white this year.  They did such a good job!  We still need to take  a picture of our front tree with red lights on top and green wrapped around the trunk... but it all looks good!

12.7.11  We were finally able to get together with my friend and former co-worker Lucie for a visit and dinner.  My friends Jackie and Crissy came too.  We all met at Panera Bread in Federal Way.  Kylie was able to join us too and we had a delicious dinner with great conversation.   I miss her so much!  Congratulations on getting a job in Seattle Lucie!  Let's keep in touch!  Miss you!

12.1.11  Zach's basketball team played at Mill Creek.  Jeff was able to take  a really late lunch and see the first half of the game.  I came after work and we tag teamed and Jeff went back to work and I got to see the 2nd half.  Zach started the game and played great!  He hustled on defense and uses those long arms to his advantage.  We don't have any pictures of this game because the camera was at home. :(  We don't remember the final score but we know we won by 4 points in a nail biter!  Whew - fouls going back and forth till the end!  Good game!

11.26.11  Huskies vs. Cougars!  We look forward to this rivalry every year!  And, this year we kicked some butt and won!  Woohoo!  Kylie had Apple Cup day at school and this is what she wore!  Too cute, eh?

11.26.11  While I was still recovering from surgery and Zach was at Jordan's birthday party, Jeff took Kylie downtown Seattle to participate in the kid's marathon.  The kids had to complete 25 miles between Sept and Nov.  This included any running during PE, recess or other activities, ie. soccer practice and games.  She also had to do at least 13 do-rights.  Those are like special chores or nice things for others.  On the actual marathon day, they had to run only 1.2 miles.  She did it in 12 minutes or so!  Great job kiddo!  While they were in Seattle, they also went up in the Space Needle, rode the monorail, went to Westlake to visit with Santa, then had lunch and decorated a holiday cookie.  What a fun day!

11.24.11  Since I was recovering from surgery and needed to lay low for a bit, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for a small crowd.  We had Gary and Andy down and Tina, Kurt, Kendra and Gretchen.  Thanks for coming everyone!  Jeff and Zach and Kylie did all the cooking, cleaning and clean up.  I didn't have to do a thing!  Thank you honey!  It was different not seeing my Mom and other sisters for the holiday but we had to spread out this year due to different circumstances. Kylie was in charge of taking pictures and she did good but just didn't take many.  None of Jeff, Zach or herself, bummer.